Dreaming of China 中国 …in Bern

Who has never heard of Bern?!?! Not New Bern in North Carolina, but Bern the capital of Switzerland. Nope, Zürich is not the capital of Switzerland, but Bern is.

The Bundesrat (Federal Council), the governing body composed of 7 persons all equally important, is based in Bern. These, hopefully, wise men and men are sharing in a yearly turnover the role of president. of hopefully wise men and women.

Here is also where you find the Bärengraben (bear pit) home to Björk and Finn and their twins Berna and Ursina.

Berne is probably also the place where you can see the biggest number of women running through town in June at the Frauenlauf. A happening that no woman should miss. Not only for the fact moving our butt or for the minutes and seconds won on the chronometer but mainly for the excellent ambiance. A great experience! See you there on 15th June 2014.

View on Bernese Houses

Bears in the Bear Pit – Bärengraben

Berner Münster

Kirchenfeldbrücke

Bundeshaus et Aare

Nydeggbrücke

St. Peter und Paul

Aare und Kirchenfeldbrücke

Welttelegrafendenkmal

Bern is all in all a nicely overseeable town with lovely restaurants, nice shops and cobble stone streets (leave your high heals at home for a stroll through the old town of Bern). You can trust me but if you need another proof: the old town became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.

And that is where I went last week not only to enjoy Bern but also to dream of China. A country still on my bucket list. A country with an incredible history. For example they were already familiar with chain production more than 2000 years ago. Not surprising that they swamp us today with their products. A country whose wise men like Confucius and Laozi are in full contradiction with the country’s human rights policy issues (Tian’anmen, Tibet). But China is a country I would definitely like to get to know but until then I try to get ready and make some progress in Chinese but it is definitely not the easiest language to learn.

Qin’s Terracotta Army

If you want to be amazed by what a civilization was able to do so many years before any other, then hurry up and take the chance and go to learn about China in Bern. Where is the link between China and Bern? Bern hosts until the 17th November the Qin exhibition where you will learn about the emperor Qin, his Dynasty 秦朝 (221 to 206 BC) and his terra-cotta army. If you are from anywhere in Europe, going to Bern is definitely less expensive than a flight to Beijing and you on more you will get China and Bern in one.

If you can make it, please let me know how you liked it.

Oh and did you know that the Chinese count up to ten with only one hand?

Thanks for writing about Qin Dynasty and its underground Terracotta Army. The capital city of Qin is ChangAn, which is called Xi’an nowadays. Xi’an is also my hometown, we visited there three months ago. Here is the writeup of the visit: